MIGHTEE-H i: the H i size-mass relation over the last billion years

MIGHTEE-H i: the H i size-mass relation over the last billion years

We present the observed H i size-mass relation of 204 galaxies from the MIGHTEE Survey Early Science data. The high sensitivity of MeerKAT allows us to detect galaxies spanning more than 4 orders of magnitude in H i mass, ranging from dwarf galaxies to massive spirals, and including all morphologica...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rajohnson, S.H.A., Frank, B.S., Ponomare, A.A., Maddox, N., Kraan-Korteweg, R.C., Jarvis, M.J., Adams, E.A.K., Oosterloo, T., Baes, M., Spekkens, K., Adams, N.J., Glowacki, Marcin, Kurapati, S., Prandoni, I., Heywood, I., Collier, J.D., Sekhar, S., Taylor, R.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: OXFORD UNIV PRESS 2022
Subjects:
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Astronomy & Astrophysics
surveys
galaxies: evolution
galaxies: kinematics and dynamics
radio lines: galaxies
TULLY-FISHER RELATION
IRREGULAR GALAXIES
STELLAR MASS
ATOMIC GAS
EVOLUTION
ORIGIN
ENVIRONMENT
MORPHOLOGY
ACCRETION
PROJECT
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP210102103
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90259
Description
Summary:We present the observed H i size-mass relation of 204 galaxies from the MIGHTEE Survey Early Science data. The high sensitivity of MeerKAT allows us to detect galaxies spanning more than 4 orders of magnitude in H i mass, ranging from dwarf galaxies to massive spirals, and including all morphological types. This is the first time the relation has been explored on a blind homogeneous data set that extends over a previously unexplored redshift range of 0 < z < 0.084, i.e. a period of around one billion years in cosmic time. The sample follows the same tight logarithmic relation derived from previous work, between the diameter (DHI) and the mass (MHI) of H i discs. We measure a slope of 0.501 ± 0.008, an intercept of -3.252+0.073-0.074, and an observed scatter of 0.057 dex. For the first time, we quantify the intrinsic scatter of 0.054 ± 0.003 dex (∼10 percent), which provides a constraint for cosmological simulations of galaxy formation and evolution. We derive the relation as a function of galaxy type and find that their intrinsic scatters and slopes are consistent within the errors. We also calculate the DHI-MHI relation for two redshift bins and do not find any evidence for evolution with redshift. These results suggest that over a period of one billion years in look-back time, galaxy discs have not undergone significant evolution in their gas distribution and mean surface mass density, indicating a lack of dependence on both morphological type and redshift.

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